Your Relationship with Change
I have been thinking about my own relationship with change a lot over the last month. I used to think that I was ‘good with change’, that I enjoyed and embraced it, but recent weeks have seen that perception alter. I’ve been working out for myself the reasons why. Over this time I have gained a much greater personal understanding of how complex our relationship to change can be. In fact, so much so that I’m going to be breaking it down and looking at each area one at a time. This piece is more of an introduction.
My aim in writing about this is to encourage you to to think about your own relationship with change and how it can differ depending on circumstances. As with so many areas of our lives, once we understand our personal preferences and automatic tendencies it can be easier to work with and manage our reactions and emotions around the subject.
To start off lets think about your gut reaction to change. Take a piece of paper and write CHANGE in the centre. Now give yourself 5 minutes to mind map your reactions to the word itself. Don’t edit your thoughts at this point. Let the responses come naturally until you run out of responses. As with any mind map we are looking for the headline topics, one or two words to sum up the thought or feeling.
Here’s a little teaser of my mind map. Obviously it’s not so easy to get real gut reactions when you have already been writing about the topic but…..there’s still some valuable insights. I particularly noticed the first two words I wrote. I’ll share the full version (mess and all) later as we move on to look at the topic in more detail. If you are ready to move on I will be adding these to the Chat area on my website but will keep you updated in the Chat Letters as well.
For now keep your mind map and maybe jot down a few notes if you noticed anything in particular as you carried out this exercise.
- How did you feel about doing this?
- Did you feel different as you moved through the exercise?
- What were the first and last things you added?
As an aside I’ve been humming David Bowie’s ‘Changes’ as I wrote this but having looked up the lyrics I have to admit that I have no idea what it’s all about! Still… I really enjoyed hunting it out and listening to it.
